Frosty Morning With Bald Eagle
November 11, 2021
Veterans’ Day
One of my favorite spots for my morning meditation and yoga is on the deck looking out over Lake Francis. This year, mild November weather has offered me the opportunity to enjoy the deck in the early morning. What I most love about this spot is all of the animal activity that happens overhead and around me. The noises seems to amplify and move in closer the deeper I drop into my meditative state. No accident there! As my energy field becomes more coherent, I am less obtrusive into the energy field that the animals move about in. Once I am calm and centered, my presence is less obvious and as such the animals can return to their usual morning activities. Their usual morning activities seem to involve a great deal of movement and plenty of noise.
The usual players from spring through late fall are squirrels, chipmunks, crows, loons, ducks, geese and turkeys. A few other players who frequent the area but not daily are bald eagles and osprey. Fox used to be a recurring visitor but the last time we saw signs of her was in the early spring 2021.
Wintertime is a different story. We will hear the busyness of some of the summer residents like squirrels and crows on a warm, sunny day. Loons, ducks, geese and osprey leave for the winter and hopefully get out of town before the lake freezes over. Bald eagles have been sighted here in the winter though not all of them stay. Because the lakes freeze over, they move to areas of open water. April of 2020 I did catch sight of a large bald eagle out on the ice here on the lake sharing in the bounty of a fresh deer kill, along with the coyotes and crows. Speaking of deer, it seems that most of the deer that live in the hundreds of acres in Pittsburg come into town and live in and around the homes for the winter. When we first moved here January 2020 we had about forty deer living in our yard. Last winter (2020-21) we saw significantly fewer and they were not a consistent presence. My husband says that they find more food and they have a bit more protection. The coyotes follow them in hopes of feeding themselves off of fresh kill during the winter. Each morning in the winter, we see the deer tracks criss crossing the yard. Some mornings we see a single coyote track in a straight line as if beelined for its prey.
Back to morning meditation on the deck. I often wonder if it is really the best place to be meditating as it is actually not a quiet spot and I am constantly tempted to open my eyes and look around to see who is doing what. That was certainly the case this morning! Before I even got outside to the deck, the constant honking of a large flock of geese caught my attention. That was around 6am. I've come to learn that whenever the geese, ducks, or loons are grouped together making a noisy racket, that a predator is nearby and closing in. Out on the deck by 7:30am, I settled onto my soft mat and basked in the warmth of the rising sun. First, my stretches. (I love the feel of stretching my hips and legs. The satisfaction of that feeling helps me empathize with my cat Charlie when he rises up from rest and stretches every muscle in his feline body.) While I was flat of my back with my right leg stretched out above, some commotion started down at the edge of the lake. Geese were honking and ducks quacking. Quickly, I sat up to see what I could see. Hmmmmm. Nothing apparent. The trees blocked my view of that area of the shoreline. As I lean back for more leg stretching I catch something out of the corner of my eye. A large flock of large birds rush in and land on the water in front of our house. These aren't birds that I recognize. Wondering if they are a migrating waterfowl that are moving through the area, quickly I pop inside the house to find the binoculars. They allow me to see the one of the strangest sight I've ever seen -- a flock of turkeys! This flock must have been fifteen birds. They all landed on the water at varying distances from the shore. The ones that landed closest to shore were walking around on the rocks by the time I had the binoculars in place. Six turkeys landed further out, at least forty to fifty feet from shore and had to swim. Without webbed feet like water birds have, I knew just how hard these birds were working to get back to terra firma. And then, in a flash, something swooped down on one of the turkeys. An osprey! The osprey stayed right over the turkeys and kept swooping in with outstretched talons. Somehow each turkey managed to lean down and not get snatched. As I watched the turkeys swim as fast as they could under the threat of this predator, my human emotions were evoked. I felt panic for them, especially the one that had to swim the farthest. As the first five reached shore and shook off some water, they walked away. The sixth one was still about twenty feet out and swimming fast. I watched as he kept turning his head left and right, assuming he was watching for the osprey. In the distance, about half mile across the lake, a lone goose floated. I wondered if that goose was aware of all of this. And I wondered why the goose was alone. Cheering the last turkey as he swam alone to the shore, I envisioned a protective energy field around him. My heightened ability to empathize led me to so badly desire success for this lone, vulnerable bird. The gap closed and in no time he was stepping onto the rocky shore. What felt like forever was probably 3 or 4 minutes. Amazing though, how fast a predator can swoop in and - game over-. The turkey made it! It seems that the turkey caught up to the rest of the flock who were hanging out under the tree cover along the edge of the lake, actually along the old road, old Route 3, that parallels the shore in front of our house.
Curious, I began to wonder how this whole scenario happened. To the best of my ability, what I can imagine is that the turkeys were hanging out along the open area to the east of our house when the osprey came along and targeted them. Or the osprey could have targeted the flock of ducks or flock of geese that were in the vicinity which could have evoked some fear and panic in the turkeys and caused them to rise up in the flustery way that they do, to fly to a roost or shelter. In this case, they flew away from shore and found themselves over the open water. Since they typically cannot fly very far they had no choice but to land on the water. Watching them land was quite a site. It was surprisingly more graceful than I would have imagined it to be since they are not water birds. One day, I'll ask a turkey biologist what may have actually happened.
As I put the binoculars down so that I could return to my mat, I heard several cries as I watched two humongous birds fly out of the top of a fir tree to the east of the yard. Assuming they were ospreys because I had just witnessed the osprey, I watched them fly away from me toward the open field to the east. Back on the mat, I resumed my stretches and hoped for a little peace and quiet to complete my morning ritual. Within a few minutes, the bird cry started up and it was close to the deck. I sat back up and saw a bald eagle perched in the very top of the fir tree in front of our house and down by the shore. As I watched this one through the binoculars (thank goodness we keep several pairs handy), I heard another similar cry and realized that there was a second bald eagle perched in the tippy top of another fir tree. I couldn't see this one because of the sun. It was exactly in line with the position of the sun in the morning sky. Something about bald eagles evokes a deep, primitive response in my soul. As I stood in awe of this beautiful bird, he or she called back and forth with the other eagle. In that moment, I wondered where the osprey was and a second later I heard the osprey's cry to the west.
What was going on? I imagine that with winter nipping at our heels these birds of prey took advantage a feeding opportunity. Several flocks of birds hanging around created an opportune moment to nab some meals.
Once the bald eagle was out of view, I returned to my mat and completed my stretching and meditation. At the end of my meditation, a cacophony of noise began again. These were the life or death screeches of ducks. Possibly the patient predators were successful in their missions while the ducks lost a brethren. A few minutes later, the same life or death screech came from a goose. Seems like a very large bird for an eagle or an osprey to successfully carry away.
Afterwards, with binoculars in hand, I walked down to the shore to see what I could see. Nothing remained. All of the birds were gone. There was no carnage to be found. No clumps of feathers floating on the water. And there was no lone goose to be seen anywhere in range.
I stayed down by the lake for a little while to soak in the goodness and deliciousness of a mid November morning of blue skies, sunshine and calm water. There is a serenity and peace sitting by the edge of water especially when no other human is around. Living here at the edge of Lake Francis brings me closer to Nature, and shows me that I am Nature. Seated on the deck or by the edge of the lake, my energy field merges with the energy field that the animals live in. We are actually all one field, the quantum field, but it is easy for me to forget that and feel separated. In moments like I had this morning where the animals go about their noisy living and duties, I can be aware of the Oneness. I can be present in the energy field with awareness and awe.
Namaste’,
Susan
Make it stand out
Today Bald Eagle inspired me to strike at one of the many opportunities that lay in front of me.
